


Red

by planetundersiege



Series: The Various Tales of the Skaia Orphanage [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Blood, DaveKat friendship, Gen, Hints of abusive bro, Hospital, Humanstuck, Karkat - Freeform, Orphanage, Panic Attacks, Stab Wound, Swearing, Tragedies (ish), may be feels, red eyes, tw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-08-29 21:49:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8506789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/planetundersiege/pseuds/planetundersiege
Summary: Karkat lived a kinda ordinary life as a lone wolf at the Skaia Orphanage, and one day he meets a boy that has something in common with this extraordinary boy, something red.





	1. Karkat

**Author's Note:**

> This is gonna be a story that I'll update once I think I have good chapters, I still have no idea how many it will be but right now I'm thinking that this will be a short story, with way longer chapters than this since this is mostly an introduction.

Screaming.  
Fists hitting faces as they all fought over the ball.  
He kicked one of the kids in the side while punching another, the hall was his and he shouldn't even need to fight over such a simple thing, but those kids are idiots, new to this place and clearly doesn't know common sense, but so was it for the most of them that lived at this place, well most people unlike this lad in particular.  
His name is Karkat Vantas and hems thirteen years old and he just wanted these damn kids to not try to steal the only soccer ball (that he owned), because they didn't know proper manners. The reason he did, and not them, was because they had stayed here for less than a month, while Karkat on the other hand had lived here on the Skaia Orphanage for as long as he couldremember, apparently he and a brother he had, had got dropped when they were newborn (Karkat) and eight (the unknown brother), and he had been adopted on the spot while he stayed at this place, to never be adopted for sure. This place was technically an orphanage but mostly runaways and street kids lived here, and who would wanna adopt a child from a “problem facility”, as many adults put it. And of the few kids that actually got adopted, Karkat would never be one of them, because too be honest, who wanted a child with bright red eyes? He wasn't albino or anything, in fact no one knew how he had been “gifted” with that eye color, but it surely put people of every time they took a closer look, disrupting every earlier connection the two had established, they no longer liking him, making up new excuses to why they suddenly didn't want this kid, or any of the orphans for that matter. They always changed their minds once they set their foot in there, not only because of how many behaved, but also because some children refused to be separated from each other, so they parents had to adopt all or non, which all resulted in non.   
This particularly was a problems to a few people, which two of were close friends of him, who were both a year younger, and who had stayed here five and two years respectively, Equius who had gotten here by the age of seven, and Nepeta who had got here at the age of ten. They were literally inseparable and a few of the more decent humans, which made it more heartbreaking when they cried and literally refused to be adopted without the other when many people wanted them because of no criminal record. He were sure that they would literally die for each other if that was the cause, and sometimes wonder of how they had gotten so close, or how Equius had found Nepeta two years ago. She just kind of showed up one day for dinner and had stayed ever since after a few angry calls between Miss Paint and the foster care system and her parents, but as always their caretaker was victorious and could welcome yet another child to the family, only to try and put them in another one, which as mentioned above didn't happen.  
He gave them yet another hit before walking to the room that was shared with two other boys, who both seemed the be out in the garden at the moment, giving some sweet quiet alone time as he carefully hid tge ball at the back of tge small closet, and sat down on the bed just staring at the wall, the summer weather not looking so tempting today, all that ever happened was the other kids playing in the yard, crying for something special to happen. Summer honestly sucked, things got less boring when they had school because then they had things to do, and their free time would be spent studying, not laying on the grass while cloud gazing and picking their belly buttons for weird items for eight weeks straight, that was honestly so stupid so his head hurt a little. Those idiots.  
He spent a small amount of time by himself before being called down for lunch along with all the other kids, all fighting to get the best chairs at the huge table, most near the food so it would be easier to grab.  
Like always, he was one of the lucky ones, people knew that if they tried taking his place they would be in for a huge fight, even though he didn't like how everyone didn't mean that he wasn't gonna fend for himself, and since he was one of the few that had spent his entire life here, most people respected him a little, but as mentioned before, not all. But one day they sure would, because he sure was fierce for being so small for his age.  
The lunch proceeded kind of okay, Miss Paint only scolding about three people, which was less than usual, and since he was bored, he decided to go for a walk, maybe buy some chips since he still had his allowance, and walking to the closest store would atleast kill some time, so he told his caretaker about it.  
“While you get your chips, could you please pick up a few things for me?”.  
Fuck. This meant he would have to go to the big store instead of the corner store, but he couldn't say no to miss Paint, so he just nodded, listened to what she wanted, and left the house. He must say that the heat was even worse than usual, and it being the middle of the day and the fact that he was wearing a black turtleneck didn't help but he couldn't help it, black was his color and if people never would adopt him because of the eyes, he could look even weirder to scare people even more now that he had the chance. It was kind of nice, making people uncomfortable when they talked bad about the orphan, because even if the others were a huge pain in the ass, Miss Paint was the best caretaker in the world and it someone talked shit about her his blood would begin to boil and he would unleash a huge rage. Even though she had never admitted it, he knew that she liked when he was so protective of her.  
He went to the bus stop, waited a few minutes and sat at the back of the bus who would take him to the other side of town, only about a 10 minute ride but it would take ages if he walked.  
His stop got called, he got off and went and bought two big cases of food, almost forgetting his chips, the actual reason he was out in the first place, and took the way through an alley, he would reach the stop much faster, and when he actually started to enjoy the day he heard a faint groan which made him look straight up, and his eyes widened as he saw something horrible.


	2. The Boy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning.  
> This chapter contains blood, stab wounds and panic attacks.

He didn't know what he saw, didn't want to realize, he had never expected to see something like this and he regretted that he had too with all the fibers of his body. This was sick. He dropped the bags in shock, making a loud noise as the hit the hard ground, the food slightly moved, as he stared at the scene in front of him while his breathing accelerated as he went into a slight (okay huge) panic, that made him shake. A boy his age was lying unconscious on the ground, his white shirt stained with bright red blood and blood running from his nose, all while making painful groans of distress, begging for help, the smell of iron reeking in the air.  
Fuck fuck fuck.  
What the fuck was he gonna do?  
The boy was alive but for how long? And how the fuck did this even happen?  
How.  
The.  
Actual.  
Fuck.  
His instincts told him to run away in case the cause of this still was nearby and like had a gun or something, still looking for prey, but instead he ran up to the boy, looking for wounds around his head since his blond locks were bloody, making his wet hair glued to his head, but he understood that the blood must be from some other wound, so he quickly checked elsewhere, frantically searching for the cause of the bleeding and the loss of consciousness, and he soon found it. The boy had a small stab wound in his stomach, pus beginning to clog up the flow but it would probably be infected. His whole torso was blood red and on the parts where it began to dry, there were a few blobs of dried blood. The smell of iron being more intense than before as he saw this, and he didn't know what to say about that. He was thirteen for gods sake, why the fuck did he have to see this?  
He was speechless, his body shaking even more vibrantly than before as his legs felt weaker for every second, making him fall and hit the hard ground, feeling the pain in his knees as the fit lightly scraped, and sat down beside the boy.  
He tried to let out a scream, but the shock made him able to only let out a small squeak.   
He tried again and again, only squeaks escaping his throat, until he took a deep breath and shouted, “Help!”, the highest and loudest he could, the sound echoing as it escaped between the walls of the alley, but the power of that shout was too much for him, as the world started to spin and he felt a sour flavor in his mouth as the half eaten food from his stomach hit the pavement, the stuff flowing out between all the coughed he had, his lungs battling for air that they didn't get, and soon he heard screams of surprise as a few people that had followed his scream came into view to investigate the distressed sound.  
The next thing happened in a blurry, a crowd had gathered, and the flashing colors of an ambulance soon followed as he almost lost his vision, someone had called 911, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't recognize a single sound, no matter how hard he screamed, he couldn't hear himself which caused him to hyperventilate after almost losing all the air in him as he was unable to bleed properly, and the next thing he knew he was sitting in a stranger’s lap, the person trying to calm him as he himself felt his hot tears drip down his cheeks. When had he started crying? He continued to scream, making is throat hurt worse than if it had been stabbed with a dagger. It was fucking stupid since he was not the one being stabbed, but this shock made him feel like it too.   
Was this the pain the unknown boy was feeling right now? Was this why he begged for help and barely breathed? And how different was their respective pain? He couldn't imagine what he must be going through when he only felt like he was dying when seeing him, the feeling of actually dying must at least be a million times worse, and that he had for a second thought that he himself had it bad, made him feel shitty about himself. Of course he didn't have it had.  
HE DIDN’T HAVE A FUCKING STAB WOUND.  
He could feel himself being moved, but he didn't know why, and by who (was it the person who held him in their lap?), and was carried somewhere and soon felt a huge speed, but he was unable to identify what it was that caused it thank to the blindness.   
All he did was groan, begging for help as his heart was still beating faster than humanly possible, but the panic had made him tired, and every grown became slightly more quiet than the previous one, until his voice was gone and he fell asleep.

…

He slowly opened his eyes as he saw a typical day of his life flash before his eyes.  
Screaming.  
His head was full of screaming.  
Fighting with the other orphan kids.  
Thinking about his biological family.  
The Brother he never knew.  
Being a lone wolf.  
Being the weird outcast…  
Red fucking eyes.  
As he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw made him want to close his eyes once again and just fall back asleep. Everything was white, and he had no idea where he was, the ceiling was pure white and as he yawned he heard a small screech, Nepeta who had been sitting in a chair in the corner of the (hospital?) room stood up and looked excited.  
“You’re awake! I’ve got to go and tell Miss Paint!”, she said and was about to leave the room.  
“Dude wait what the fuck happened?”.  
“Some people found you passed out next to a boy with stab wounds, his name's Dave by the way and he’ll be living with us. They think you shut down after seeing him or something, it was bad enough to let you rest here atleast, pretty clawful when you think about it”,  
Oh god that thing was real.  
With that realization, he immediately felt to small pain in his scraped knees, making it feel like no dream anymore. Oh how he wished it was only a dream.  
“Well okay then, I guess?”. He was so confused, his head hurting more than before as the scene of what happened earlier once again got imprinted into his eyes, all that blood. It made him shiver.  
“Just relax a little, I’ll get Miss Paint for you, I’ll be back in a sec okay, Equius can stay with Dave while she gets here”.  
“Okay sure”.  
And with that, his friend closed the white door, making a loud sound as he once again found himself alone in the room.   
His only option was to wait.


	3. The Hospital

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is kinda short but I'll try to make next chapter longer.

As Karkat looked up into the pure white ceiling that had blinded his eyes earlier, taking a few deep breaths as he waited for Nepeta to return with his caretaker, he became bored. Time was such a fucker right now and definitely stood still just to taunt him, a minute felt like literal years, and his whole body urged after something to do, walking, jumping, running, anything but being trapped in this hard uncomfortable hospital bed that looked like it belonged more in a morgue. Heck he would love a fight with the fellow kids on the Orphanage, another fight over his belongings was better than this. It was so boring to be here. And he wasn't even sick? Why was he even on need of a fucking bed? He just fainted out of shock, it’s not like he broke a bone or gotten a severe injury something. Like they probably should put their attention on who knows, THE GUY WITH A STAB WOUND INSTEAD OF HIM. He could have just been asleep in the waiting room with Nepeta or something, like normal people. Anything was better than feeling left alone in this small pure white prison.   
When he was finally about to give up, the door was suddenly wide open and Nepeta was back with Miss Paint as she promised.  
“How are you feeling Karkat?”, she asked as she walked towards his bed, giving him a slight calm smile like she always did, Karkat knew that she had the idea that if she always smiled, the kids would too, and he guessed it worked for some, but right now he didn't complain about the smile at all.  
“Well kinda okay for just waking up after seeing a dude getting fucking stabbed and passing out from it like it was a shitty fucking dream or something like that”.  
She coughed once, to signalize that she didn't like the swearing, but that he could continue talking, because Karkat was the only kid who was allowed to swear without big consequences, she had given up long ago and trying to make him stop.  
“I don't even know what the hell happened for the most part. One second I’m on my way home from the store and the next I see that dude and who knows? Those dudes could have still been there and I could have gotten the same fate, how was I gonna keep calm when there was a risk of me being murdered? The strangers who tried to comfort me didn't like that I had a fucking natural fight or flight reflex. Fucking idiots”.  
“Well the police found the man who stabbed Dave, it was a teen living a few blocks away and he’s going to court in a few weeks so nothing to worry about. How’s your head feeling? Did you hit anything when he fainted?”.  
“Head is good, and no idea. Can I please get up now? It’s boring as fuck in here”.  
“Well sure of the doctors says it’s okay. Then you could come with us to Dave’s room and meet him, the hospital will release him next week once the wound is healed a little bit better. I'm sure you will become good friends because you are very similar”.  
He just nodded.  
Another person like him?   
Just perfect.  
He didn't want to admit it but he knew he was a pain in the ass to most people, so if there would be a Karkat 2.0 moving in then he would experience what the others experienced every day when he was around.  
Hopefully Miss Paint only said so because of some other reason, because he did not want another super grumpy person at the orphanage. That was his job.  
His caretaker left the room to find a doctor, which meant he and Nepeta were alone again.  
“I hope you can get up, it would be purrfect for you to meet Dave. He really wanna meet the person that saved him”.  
“Saved him? Do I look like a doctor to you? I just randomly found him lying on the street, it was these doctors here that saved him, not me. Fuck I’m not even capable enough to save a fly”.  
“You don't mean that, you’re really helpful at home too”.  
“Stop the lying, I know you’re only saying this shot because you feel bad about me being in a hospital bed. I ain't helpful and shouldn't be praised, I’m an average grumpy piece of shit that just happens to live with you dumb fuckers”, he saying, trying to not show how he cared for her, and the other people he lived with for that matter. It was kinda like the silent rule, he acted like a fucking jerk and everyone was used to it, but he secretly liked (most) people.  
“But you are helpful”.  
“Nope”.  
“You are”.  
“Shut the fuck up”.  
“Good news Karkat, the doctor’s saying you can get out of bed and meet Dave”, Miss Paint said as she opened the door to his room, doctor following right behind her, giving him a nod.  
Not a second was wasted as he immediately jumped out of that uncomfy bed, touching the ground less than a second after he had gotten permission to leave, and slowly started stretching his arms a little as he yawned a little.  
“So let's get this over with, let's meet this Dave dude”, he said as he scratched the back of his messy ginger hair and once again got a nod from his caretaker. They all left the room, Miss Paint in the lead and the two children afterwards. The corridors were pure white, filled to the brink with doctors and nurses, some walking and chatting with each other and some running like there was a life and death situation. And there were so many kids there. Some had casks for broken bones, some just looked plain weak, coughing as the tried not to lose consciousness as they sat in their wheelchairs. Some lacked hair, they were probably going through cell drugs or something similar.   
Why the fuck was he even placed in a section like this?  
These kids looked deadly sick or atleast most of them, while he only fucking fainted.  
Great job there Karkat, when you go to the hospital you have to waste their resources by being fucking lame when you don't even need care.  
They continued walking through a few more corridors before Miss Paint stopped in front of a door like any other he had seen, and nodded at Karkat.  
“Are you ready to meet Dave?”.  
“Sure, I guess”.


	4. Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat meets Dave.

The door opened and Karkat walked into the room, pure white as the one he had been in minutes prior. In front of him was a room similar to the one he had been in, Nepeta and Equius sitting on chairs, Nepeta’s way to big olive green jacket thrown onto the floor in front of her, and on the white hospital bed was the blond boy, now in a hospital gown, looking tired, but that didn't stop him from still having those round shades on, like if he was hiding something.  
“Dave, this is Karkat”, miss Paint said and pointed at him, which made his already freckles face become a shade of redder as he blushed, not used to being introduced, or the center (ish) of attention.  
“Hey there, thanks for finding me and bringing me here, really means a lot”, he said, in a low and raspy, and extremely tired voice. No wonder if he was tired, he had gotten stabbed after all.  
“You don't need to thank for something like that, every fucking decent human being would understand that they don't live a fucking kid bleeding on the ground alone. Like those kind of people, along with the person that thought it was a good idea to stab a kid, are sick in the head”, he said, raising his voice, going into his normal speech pattern as he answered.  
“Yeah but still thank you for not being one of those weirdos, so I guess also thank you for not letting me bleed to death”, he said before coughing.  
“Like already said once before, that's just fucking human decency. And I wasn't even the one calling the god damned ambulance, I fucking passed out, and could you blame me? There was blood fucking everywhere!”, he said, not realizing his voice had became louder once more.  
For some reason, that Dave guy was smiling.  
“Yeah Equius you described him perfectly, a walking megaphone with a grumpy attitude yet caring. Gonna be nice to get to know you more buddy”.  
“Are you actually serious right now? Who wants to know me?”, he asked, for a split second thinking back to the fact that no one had wanted to adopt him, but only for a second.  
“Fucking yeah, when I’m out of this place I can show you all of my sick beats and my sweet sweet irony over some apple juice. It’ll be fucking sweet”.  
Karkat heard miss Paint sigh and whispered “Oh god another unstoppable swearing child when she realized Dave swore almost as much as him, but more casually instead of angrily. So that's a start at least? (Maybe).  
“Well okay if you really want that. Also how the fuck are you so calm, after being stabbed so recently”.  
He shrugged before yawning.  
“Don't know, just am, not composing though, even though the stab wounds hurts like a, okay there isn't even a swear word that describes how much it hurts, but I’m ok. Grew up strifing with my bro, pretty skilled at the katana actually”.  
“That is fucking sick, who gives a child a katana, that can't even be legal”.  
“Who knows, and you’re sure right crabby. Why do you think I’m here? I wanna get away from all the strife”.  
“Okay first off, don't ever call me crabby again or I'll make you pay and suffer, and second, that sounds fucked up”.  
“Yeah it was, and less than three hours after I leave my goddamn apartment for good I get stabbed, just me and my Strider luck, but I'm not thinking ‘bout that right now since I’ll live with you all now. From what I've seen these to are decent”, he said, pointing at Equius and Nepeta. “But one thing, why do most of you have such strange names, like I've never met an Equius, Nepeta or Karkat before. Like what?”.  
“Well not everyone can have such a common name as you mr David”.  
“It's just Dave, my full name is Dave, not David”.  
“Well then you just got a little bit more uncommon”.  
“Well seems good so I can blend in with you guys”.  
“I don't know if I should be glad or angry”, he said, raising his voice a little more and Dave just shrugged.  
“Be both I guess crabby”.  
“What the fuck did I just tell you a few minutes prior? Do you have the memory of a goldfish?”, he asked, his eyes opening up more as he almost shouted.   
Dave was completely paralyzed, looking at him (he thought? The shades were in the way) for no apparent reason, completely lost.  
“The fuck are you staring at?”.  
“Your eyes, I just noticed your eyes”.  
Fuck of course.  
“They’re red”, he continued.  
“No shit they are, and why do you ask about them?”.  
Dave slowly took of his shades, his eyes closed and as he slowly opened them, Karkat also got paralyzed.  
Dave’s eyes were also red, the exact same candy red eye color as Karkat had been cursed (or blessed with according to miss Paint) with, the anomaly that made him unable to get adopted.  
As his hand staked furiously, he lost breathe as he continued to stare into the eyes.  
He wasn't alone anymore.  
And it honestly felt great.

 


End file.
